P3S lost propeller in flight. Me too

[Bosco]

Phantom 3 standard, 2 month flier here. Add me to the list of those who lost a single propeller in flight. DJI carbon fiber props. Hand tightened, but more than spinning them on till they stopped. Camera broke off at the gimbal, and something rattling around inside. The brand new gimbal protector failed to do its job, but one can't expect miracles. So I guess I just join the line at the DJI repair shop?

I was essentially hovering, but had just started a mild left. Had been mostly stationary for 5 min.

The interesting thing is a strange white anomaly on the lower left side of the video just before the prop flies off. Note that I had to repair the video because the MOV did not write the end header, so I cannot be 100% certain this is something real or just a video artifact. On the one hand, it looks like an artifact. But on the other hand, it is really suspicious.

Litchi did not save the flight info (it thought the flight was still going on when I killed the app). I have never managed to successfully connect to my windows 10 computer and access the onboard flight log. Could that contain something useful?

 

[Sagebrush]

a strange white anomaly on the lower left side of the video just before the prop flies off.

I saw the landing gear, is that what you are referring to?

Ouch on the crash. Been there but mine was pure pilot error.

SB

 

[Sj22]

My worst nightmare!

 

[rleigh]

That sucks! I try to pay attention when tightening the props on. I think if you over tighten, you run the risk of putting stress on the threads which could make a hairline crack causing it to weaken. You have to keep in mind that the motors are designed to turn into the threads keeping them from unscrewing in mid-flight. So I think a lot of these self-destruct failures are from tightening the props too much.

 

[Bosco]

I saw the landing gear, is that what you are referring to?SB

No, I don't think so. From 0:01 to 0:03, at the left edge of the video towards, there is a pure white circular shape. The prop is lost at 0:04.

 

[Bosco]

Here is a screen shot of the "white blob anomaly". Is this real, and if so, what on earth is it? Or is it something caused by the MOV file recovery tool. I find it hard to believe it is the recovery tool -- it is not at the end of the clip -- but it does not look real either.

 

[Metro]

Definitely looks like the landing gear to me. Put the video in 0.25x speed and it definitely seems to match up with what the P3 landing gear looks like. White, round edges, and with a little nub of black padding.

Seems unlikely that it would be an artifact caused by the recovery of the video given that it occurs right before the propeller flies off and through lots of frames, both moving on and off camera smoothly.

 

[Bosco]

Ok, but why would landing gear show up in the field of view? It doesn't normally. And why would it move into view then back out? One hypothesis could be that the drone is already starting to fail, but the camera is steady. But for an extra two seconds?

 

[Metro]

That's the confusing part. Even if the gimbal is angled all the way down you should never see any part of the drone.

Could it be that the motor failed or reversed somehow, causing the drone to tilt before the prop flew off completely? The camera would stay steady through some of that which could explain why you see the landing gear.

 

[With The Birds]

Looks like landing gear in the clip. I have seen that in windy conditions.

 

[Fluffy]

First of all OUTCH.. as second the white round thing you see on the left side looks more like to lower colom ( body ) were the motor is connected into the body. Dont know if you speeded up the movie but it seems your drone whent terrible fast to the left until your prop flyed off.

 

[Bosco]

Moving on to DJI repair, I have some questions:
1) My controller has the argtek antenna installed. I need to send the controller back with the body. Will that be a problem?
2) What are the odds that DJI agrees that a lost propeller is a "manufacturing problem?
Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere. I tried to search, but came up empty.

 

[bigirb2002]

Now i think im just going to sale my dji props instead of using them

 

[Bosco]

To finish the thread:

1) DJI does not want you to send in the controller if you have any mods on it.
2) DJI repaired the drone for no charge.
3) They included a replacement set of props in the return package.

 

[Mr. Salty]

This thread is certainly making me rethink ordering carbon fiber props.